Is Caffeinated Tea Dehydrating?

For years, I’ve recommended that the healthiest beverage to drink is tea—even healthier than water, since tea has all the water of water, yet as a bonus carries a huge load of nutrition without adding calories. But: “There is a belief that caffeinated drinks, such as tea, may adversely affect hydration.” Now this was based on experiments done with high-dose caffeine pills, though, which may not entirely reflect the likely impact of tea, which is a more complex substance.

So, researchers compared four cups of black tea to four cups of water, and six cups of black tea to six cups of water. They kept volunteers locked up for 24 hours, so they could measure every drop going in, and every drop coming out.

The tests revealed no significant differences between tea and water for any of the average blood or urine measurements. It was concluded that black tea, in the amounts studied, offered similar hydrating properties to water. “Thus, tea could be considered a healthy choice of beverage.” And health professionals that don’t know any better and “incorrectly identify tea as a diuretic, could be misleading people and serve to drive consumption towards less healthy beverages.”

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Serena.

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• Ruxton CH, Hart VA. Black tea is not significantly different from water in the maintenance of normal hydration in human subjects: results from a randomised controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2011 Aug; 106(4):588-95.

Image thanks to ienjoysushi / flickr

• beverages
• black tea
• caffeine
• dehydration
• green tea
• medical profession
• tea
• water